Fan Fiction Recommendation

Happy Veterans Day, everybody, Antoni here, with another fan fiction recommendation. This is Lethean Caresses written by ZoZo1770 back on February 9, 2014, starring two of my most favorite Soul Calibur warriors of all time Siegfried Schtauffen and Kilik and they are a couple in this story, which I really love with a passion. It’s rated M, it’s in English, and it’s under Angst/Romance. I know a lot of people who support Kilik and Xianghua as a couple will be out for my blood, but as much as I like that couple, along with Siegfried and Cassandra and to some extent Siegfried and Sophitia, I absolutely fancy the pants off of Siegfried and Kilik as a handsome, sexy, and awesome couple. Think about it, both of these gentlemen have very haunting pasts, what with Siegfried murdering his father, Frederick, for mistaking him for an enemy bandit, and Kilik murdering his half-sister, Xianglian, when he was under the influence of the Evil Seed, they are of the same age and born in the same month of February, with Kilik being three days younger than Siegfried, both carry huge and long weapons, Siegfried with his Zweihänder and Kilik with his bo staff, they are both the fan favorites in the gaming community, and in Japanese they are respectively voiced by two of my most favorite male Seiyuu, Nobuyuki Hiyama as Siegfried and Souichiro Hoshi as Kilik. The very interesting thing about Hiyama-sensei and Hoshi-sensei when it comes to the characters they voice together there is a certain Ho-Yay atmosphere going between said characters. It could be a fan thing, it could be kind of canon in the show, or it could be interpreted by fan fiction authors and fan artists as belligerent sexual tension. On top of that, while Nobuyuki Hiyama specializes in a lot of passionate heroes, tragic anti-heroes, maniacal villains, and even comedic characters all thanks to his rough, wide-ranging, husky tenor voice, which can reach baritonal low notes, Souichiro Hoshi specializes in a lot of youthful, boyish, and a lot of boy-next-door characters all thanks to the soft-toned and light tenor voice. Speaking of which, both of them have really gorgeous singing voices. Hiyama’s singing voice has that smoothness and coolness which make him very alluring, whilst Hoshi’s is youthful and gentle. When you put these two together, their voices blend gorgeously with Hiyama’s earthier and rougher timbre being a fine complement to Hoshi’s airier and more delicate timbre. Don’t get me wrong I also love Grant George as Kilik and Crispin Freeman as Siegfried before he got Darrin’d by Roger Craig Smith as these two also did phenomenal jobs of embodying them, but I can never go wrong with Hiyama-sensei and Hoshi-sensei for their amazing works as Siegfried and Kilik. With that said, let’s get on to the fanfic. I will warn you that this is not for everyone to read, mostly because it is rather erotic with our two heroes making really passionate yet painful love to each other. That’s pretty much the entire story and I’m sure some of you are feeling hot beneath the gussets. Yes, the plot is rather minimalistic with two men caressing, kissing, embracing, and making love to each other, but this minimalistic plot is more than compensated by the language and stylistic devices. Let us not forget that Lethe is a river in the Underworld, which is meant for forgetfulness, hence the title Lethean Caresses. What we have here in this story are two men tormented and tortured by their sordid pasts that they find solace, comfort, intimacy, and such strong and mutual affection for each other, so much so, that they yearn to forget their earthly pains by making strong love to each other. There are only two pieces of dialogue, which are just the words “Bitte.”, or please in English said by Siegfried and “Look at me.”, said by Kilik, as the imagery, atmosphere, wordplay, and many other stylistic devices I could barely name off the top of my head help to make this story a huge blast to read from beginning to end and of course, make it extremely interesting. Speaking of language, I found no typography errors whatsoever and even though a super small of punctuations were a bit questionable, that did not distract from the enjoyment I had reading this fanfic. The vocabulary has a lot of distinction as it is vivid, colorful, and just plain excellent in a somber and melancholic way. The overall language manages to manipulate my emotions so masterfully that I was so rooted in Siegfried and Kilik’s erotically intimate tale. Speaking of our two male leads, Siegfried and Kilik sell the story. Their chemistry with each other is so effective, as their personalities blended so well, and I have to give ZoZo1770 a lot of credit for bringing in this much action to the both of them whilst keeping them sufficiently in character. I can sense the tension, the passion, the steam, and the longing for solace going on between them and it is a marvelous experience. On top of that, I can see their moments of intense intimacy playing in my head, all in courtesy of the great use of such poetic language, which showed eloquence, passion, and allure. Overall, I am absolutely astounded by this dark and haunting tale of erotic pleasures going on between such tortured souls as Siegfried and Kilik. With such magnificent poetry in the passages and an overall haunting yet darkly romantic atmosphere to move the story along, this is a major must-read especially if you like Yaoi, Soul Calibur, or of course, Siegfried and Kilik just making out with each other. With that said, I give this an A+. I spotted no grammatical errors, I was not left bored, and the action going on between Siegfried and Kilik was thrilling, which were the biggest strengths of this story. Well, that’s all for now, and tune in later for…

Hey, everybody! Antoni, here, with another fan fiction recommendation. And this time, we’re taking a look at Encounter, a soul calibur fanfic written by vhorizon. It’s rated T. It’s in English and the main characters of this fanfic are Mitsurugi and Maxi. Now, if you know me, I love it when Mitsurugi and Maxi get paired up together either as friendly rivals, really good friends, or just a couple of guys willing to knock each other out, yet still have a good time. That’s mostly because their characters were famously voiced by veteran Seiyuu, Toshiyuki Morikawa and Nobutoshi Canna, whose collaborations in Bleach, Slam Dunk, Naruto, and Berserk are pure evidence that these two have amazing chemistry voicing friends, rivals, allies, and friendly rivals. Plus, these two seem to be pretty good friends in real life, if the list of collaborations weren’t evident enough. The basic plot revolves around Mitsurugi encountering an old enemy of his who has come back for vengeance after his arm was lost. Meanwhile, Maxi has gotten himself in a pickle with an assassin who seems to be Astaroth’s minion. After all that, the two then meet each other and it’s an all-out battle between Mitsurugi and Maxi against the police who are going to arrest them. This story is quite well-done in terms of establishing the epic feel of the Soul series. I like how the fight scenes are described being quite vivid without being too wordy. However, the biggest highlight has to be Mitsurugi and Maxi in this story. The way they formed an alliance with each other was really well-done and I wish there were more stories, which have them as best friends almost like brothers and just go around kicking butt. Their newfound friendship is established well and the fact that they are still in character, with Mitsurugi’s stoic, single-minded nature and Maxi’s cool sarcasm and laid-back attitude, is great as their personalities mesh well. The negatives mostly come from the wrong wording, i.e. “were” instead of “we’re”, missing apostrophes before the s, and even when it’s only one person the apostrophe ended up after the s when it should have been before it, and some of the paragraph spacing could’ve been improved. I’m sure that should vhorizon come back to this fanfic to polish it up, it would be great. On top of that, in terms of the title of the story, Soul Calibur should’ve been capitalized because that is the franchise the story is based on. There was also the issue of if the female assassin came on her own volition or as a command by Astaroth, but I digress. Overall, despite some technical issues, this is a fanfic I can safely recommend if you are a fan of Mitsurugi and Maxi from the Soul series and if you like video-game based fanfics altogether. With that said, I give this a grade of B+. Yes, some of the technical issues did bog this down, but the story was well-done, to say the least, and I would love to see more stories of Mitsurugi and Maxi being allies because these two are awesome when they work together. I know I’m going to hate sounding like a broken record, but the possibilities between these two are numberless. Whether they beat the crap out of their foes or each other, they have a sort of strong, masculine, and overall great presence, which makes them stand out among all the other Soul series characters, but that’s just me. Well, that’s all for now, I’m sorry if I haven’t been doing more video blog style opera reviews as I should, but you know how it is. Fulfilling academic expectations and the upcoming Werther play and many other things certainly make it rather impossible to find enough time. However, don’t despair. There are a lot of fanfics out there, that I would love to recommend, so stay tuned for those. Until then, have a great autumn season. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2689777/1/Encounter

Hey, everybody! Antoni, here, with another fan fiction recommendation. Yes, I know I was supposed to review Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte starring Tuuli Takala and Siobhan Stagg as the Queen of the Night and Pamina respectively, but I was busy with other things like school, I was quite knackered, and there was a bit of public transportation repair that had to be done, which was a bit of a detriment to my attempted journey to the Deutsche Oper Berlin. So, I decided to compensate for this loss with this interesting little fanfic based on one of my all-time favorite Nicktoons, Hey Arnold! The fanfic I’ll be taking a look at is, Arnold Betrays Iggy: Alternate Ending written by colossalblackening. It’s rated K. It’s in English and it was published to FanFiction.net on April 15 of this year. Have you ever watched an episode of your favorite TV show, whether it’s animated or live-action, and spotted an episode that makes you sick to your stomach because of its mean-spiritedness, out of character moments, and had many moments which make you say, “What the Hell happened?” Do you also feel that you could’ve bettered the overall story? Well, Arnold Betrays Iggy is one of those episodes and it was so bad that Craig Bartlett and his crew apologized for this episode’s existence. And of course, enter a bunch of fan fiction authors who do their best to write their interpretations of how they would rewrite certain episodes they don’t particularly like into something more optimistic and less mean-spirited. My personal experience with this episode was I hated it when I was a kid, felt disinterested with it as I grew up, and I still could not stand this particular episode, especially when Sid and Stinky were at fault for forcing the secret out of Arnold and they should’ve been the ones to pay the consequences. With that said, let’s get on to my thoughts on the fanfic. The fanfic starts off when Arnold finishes all of Iggy’s chores, yet the latter still has not forgiven the former. This is probably to establish that we as Hey Arnold fans or those who watched this episode already what happened prior, which is not a bad start, but I felt like the story could’ve started similarly to the original episode. I digress though, as after this the story then cuts to the chase of the familiar scene where Iggy forces Arnold to wear the bunny pajamas. For the record, it’s nice to read that Arnold’s grandpa is not being willing to take pictures of his humiliation and that Iggy confronted Stinky and Sid whilst the two of them were regretting that they were the ones actually at fault for what happened. I’m not going to spoil the ending to this fanfic, but let’s just say that it’s so satisfying with a few humorous moments coming from a few familiar characters, a touching moment with Gerald, Arnold’s best friend forever, plus with Iggy, yet an element that was a bit of headscratcher, but I digress, it’s still so satisfying and will leave anyone who reads this with a big smile and lots of pleasant thoughts. There is so much good in this fanfic. Everyone was in character, the humor from Hey Arnold! is still greatly intact, and more than anything the ending is super satisfying, especially if you cannot tolerate or even abhor Arnold Betrays Iggy. The layout is really good, though I am kind of not a fan of having the transitions marked on there as if it were a script. Even though the story was well-written, I did spot some grammar errors, in the form of missing words, and they were kind of jarring, but not enough to deter me. One noticeable one was, “how come you there with everyone else yesterday?” when it should have been, “how come you were not there with everyone else yesterday?”. Another issue was minor and once you read the ending to the fanfic, you will know what I mean. So, there you have it. You know what I’m going to give this fanfic and it’s an A-. It had a few grammatical errors and it had a bit of a plothole, but when all is said and done, the strengths more than outweigh the weaknesses and it is a fine retelling of how Arnold Betrays Iggy should’ve ended. Well, that’s all for now, and be sure to tune in for another fan fiction recommendation. Goodnight, everybody! https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12447777/Arnold-Betrays-Iggy-Alternate-Ending

Hey, everybody! Antoni, here, with another fanfic recommendation. For those of you who watched my of Jigoku Shoujo or Hell Girl will know that I also recommended this as a really good read. That’s right it’s Jigoku Shoujo Season 1: Aftermath written by Celestialfae back on January 25, 2012, and it was completed on June 16 of this year. It’s rated T, it’s in English, and it has 26 chapters. Even though there are several moments where Ai Enma is the focal point of the story, this belongs to the victims of Season 1 and of course Hajime and Tsugumi Shibata, so each of their stories are stand-alone, yet nonetheless, are linked to Ai Enma. It should be no surprise that I am a major fan of Hell Girl and if ever I find the time to do the next top 15 favorite anime of all time or even bump it up to the next 25, Hell Girl will be placed on that list alongside Now and Then Here and There and Fantastic Children, which I regretted placing as honorable mentions. My history with this work by Celestialfae dates back four years ago when I first read a few chapters and I wanted so much more. I’m really happy this fanfic was completed because it was a fascinating read and here’s why. The chapters follow the show’s 26 episodes order to a T. There are some chapters in which the perspective is in the third-person form, while others like Chapters 5, 7, 11, 13, and 20 are in the first-person form to get a more in-depth look as to how the characters fared after their covenant with Ai Enma, and even a poem in Chapter 17 from the point of view of Nina’s father. For the most part, the characters ranging from Mayumi Hashimoto from Episode 1 all the way up to Goro Ishizu from Episode 22 do their very best to live their lives even though eternal damnation awaits them. It is really interesting to witness what they are doing with their lives after everything they have endured before, during, and after encountering Ai Enma. Some are very successful and have different personalities from their show’s counterparts to show that just because they have made it big does not mean that they can forget the pain caused to them by their tormentors, who are now six feet under. Others are deeply traumatized by what happened or are trying to pick the pieces back up in order to shape their lives in spite of their eternal damnation. Others turn to the cold, ambiguous side, as they will have to carry the burden they must live with. And of course Chapters 24-26 focus on Sentarou, Ai Enma, and Hajime and Tsugumi Shibata respectively. And in Chapter 23, a character is brought back to the mortal world and it’s worth the read. If you’ve watched the show and the episode, you know who it is. I’ll give you a guess. She’s a sweet and innocent nurse who was unfairly sent to Hell by a depraved drug-addict. So, I am not going to mince words here, the stories found in each chapter were well-thought out and were overall well-done. There were chapters I really loved from this fanfic mostly because since I watched the episodes there were ones that stuck out really well and in turn, the chapters were of emotional interest. Forgiving the Faultless, which is Chapter 6, has Haruka Yasuda, whose shining moment in this fic was when she spoke up against her father and after a few moments of hesitation and trying to bury resentment formed a new friendship with Yuria Todaka. Raise your Voice, which is Chapter 7, gives more development to Kaoruko Kurushima and her exploits when encountering Midori Kurenai, Ayaka, the two thugs who gave her that voice-damaging tonic, and of course Ai Enma because in the show, she did not really have that much to say nor do as Cracked Mask was sort of meant to be a sort of an episode full of surprises and of course focuses on Ayaka’s unraveling of her true, petty, and nasty personality. Worth It, which is Chapter 13, has Fukumoto who is contemplating his experience with Ai Enma and what lead him to pull the scarlet thread, yet live with agony until his old age. No One Mourns the Wicked, which is Chapter 16, focuses on Yumi now a young adult, more different than her poor, victimized younger self, and now an ambitious 23-year-old. Kikuri/The Lord of Hell even appears in this chapter and as they venture to Hell, the reader is then treated to such nightmarish, kind of graphic images that it’s hard to purge them away. Papa’s Angel, which is Chapter 17, does have Nina, but the focus is on her father, as he recites a poem that though short is rather heart-wrenching. You will have to read Chapter 23 in order to know who I’m talking about and I’m sure you will feel a lot of satisfaction after doing so. If I were to list more highlights from this fanfic, I would be here all day. Sufficed to say that the characters from each of the chapters have something unique to offer and their journeys after meeting Ai Enma are quite fascinating. Despite my immense love of this story, there were a few issues I had, but they did not detract my enjoyment of this fanfic. There were some punctuation errors, misspelled words, and a few grammatical errors. A good number of these were an oversight as I am sure that Celestialfae had a lot of things with to deal with in real life. And a minor detail that I found out was Haruka’s father is not named Toshi, but rather Hideo, but that’s just a minor gripe. I don’t know if Celestialfae will come back to fix up the errors, but if she does, it would be great. Still, the errors…

Hey, everybody! Antoni, here, with another fanfic recommendation. And this time it’s Salvation, a Soul Calibur fanfic written by DarkStar56 on February 11, 2012. It’s rated T, it’s in English, it has 16 chapters, but it is unfortunately unfinished, more on that later, and the main pairing is Siegfried and Cassandra. Other characters involved in this fanfic are Sophitia, Mitsurugi, Maxi, Rock, Hwang, Ivy, Hilde, Aeon Calcos, Cervantes, Astaroth, Tira, and Nightmare. On top of that, the story takes place during the events in Soul Calibur 4. Let’s get this started, shall we? I first caught this fanfic about four years ago and I found it really intriguing. Those same sentiments held up really well and this is coming from someone who loved playing Soul Edge, Soul Calibur, Soul Calibur II, and Soul Calibur 3 ever since I was a kid and has been proud to call himself a fan of the series. What I truly about this fanfic is that is a character-driven story, meaning the characters move the plot along and do so in a way that I am completely invested in their journey. It is a great mixture of action, drama, comedy, romance, and of course, fantasy and the supernatural, the latter two plus a great deal of action being really great components of the Soul series. There was not a moment in the story which was neither boring nor dragged on for too long. It was well-paced with great interest, great build up in certain moments, and a very enjoyable experience. There were times I imagined the characters from the game living these moments and it is pure awesomeness. However, the story has been left incomplete for five years, which is a major shame because I wanted so much more. I wanted to see how it was going to build up further, more epic fight scenes, more character development, and hopefully a solid conclusion. I am very sure that DarkStar56 has a lot to deal with in his real life and I do understand and empathize with what he might be going through completely, but if he were to come back to this story, I would love to have a lot more exciting moments and a solid conclusion to wrap it up. So, DarkStar56, I do hope you finish the story because I enjoy it so far and I would love to see how it’s going to add up. What’s a great story without great characters? Fortunately, the main five of Siegfried, Cassandra, Sophitia, Maxi, and Mitsurugi were excellently characterized. They have amazing chemistry with each other and it makes me wish that they would’ve had their own show and have a lot of adventures together. I’m sure that any fan of the games will know that Mitsurugi is usually the stern and serious type. However, in this fanfic, he’s a lot friendlier and more open as a person, which might be a bit out of character, but it’s a welcome treat to make Mitsurugi more diverse. I also like the moment when Siegfried and Mitsurugi make an oath to be blood brothers, which I found rather sweet. Yet when it comes to the character relationships that steal the show, they have to be Siegfried and Cassandra, Siegfried and Sophitia, Sophitia and Cassandra, and Mitsurugi and Maxi. Siegfried and Cassandra are absolutely great as a couple, even though their relationship is not canon in the games. Despite that, I can sense their budding relationship with each other, as Siegfried is always willing to protect Cassandra, and as a Soul Calibur fan, I just love these two together as their personalities blend really well. With Siegfried and Sophitia, it should be no surprise that I used to believe that there was the potential for them to become a couple, but it was never meant to be when Sophitia married Rothion and had two kids of her own. Heck, I used to root for them to become a couple. There is one moment between them in which they confessed of how they used to like each other, and I thought it was done in a sincere and endearing fashion. One can tell there was something going on between Sophitia and Siegfried, but fate stepped in and Sophitia married Rothion and Siegfried will very well end up with Cassandra. It should also be noted that Siegfried was voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama and Sophitia was voiced by Michiko Neya until Soul Calibur 3 before she was replaced by Chie Nakamura in Soul Calibur Legends in the Japanese dub. I can never go wrong with Hiyama-san and Neya-san when it comes to the characters they voice and a good amount of them have pretty good chemistry, not just as Siegfried and Sophitia, but also as Viral and Adiane from Gurren Lagann. Sophitia and Cassandra have great sisterly moments and each of them can be touching, humorous, and genuine. One can tell that they do care for each other and are practically like best friends. Mitsurugi and Maxi steal the show for me. I mean, come on! Mitsurugi and Maxi being best buds is an excellent idea. On top of that, I do love their backstory with Taki and Setsuka, which you have to read for yourself, it’s really intriguing. Seriously, there should be a show about them kicking butt, testing each others’ strength, and all the while being the best of pals and having a nice drink of sake to chill out. That would be an amazing concept! Their shining moment was in the combat scene before Sophitia interrupted their brawl and gave them a beating. Also worth mentioning is that Mitsurugi was voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa and Maxi was voiced by Nobutoshi Canna until Soul Calibur 3 before he was replaced by Kenjiro Tsuda in Soul Calibur 4 and Shigeo Kiyama in Soul Calibur 5, but personally Canna-san is always going to be Maxi. Morikawa-san and Canna-san have done a major list of works together mostly as friends and/or rivals…